North Texas Daily

A 2-year-old who went missing near an apartment complex close to campus Tuesday was found dead Wednesday morning, as the news was somberly announced at a Denton Police Department press conference. 

The boy, named Sarbesh Gurung, was found dead early morning inside a parked vehicle in a crime scene area on the 2400 block of W. Prairie, said Denton Police Chief Frank Dixon at the Wednesday press conference. 

While there were no signs of obvious trauma to the body, the investigation is ongoing, Dixon said. 

Gurung went missing Tuesday afternoon, before the call went out to what would become hundreds of community volunteers to help with a search. 

As daylight faded, community volunteers were called off and first responders continued to canvass the area with air support. 

A child not being found for multiple hours is rare, said Assistant Chief Bobby Smith Tuesday night as the search was still taking place. 

“I have a hard time even remembering that in my entire career in this city,” he said. “We’re talking about a very abnormal situation. When a child goes missing the child is almost always located within one hour in which they’re at a friends house or depending on their age they’re found by someone in the area. ”  

Dixon thanked community members and first responder agencies for helping in the effort, at the Wednesday press conference. 

“This is obviously not the conclusion we were hoping for, we held out against all odds that we were going to find Sarbesh,” he said. 

Police Chief Frank Dixon holds a press conference Wednesday at the Denton Police Department. (NT Daily Photo by Jelani Gibson)

“There were over 200 people in that area,” Dixon said of the amount of volunteers looking for the child.

“There’s a lot of things that we don’t have answers for now, and I’ll tell you there’s going to be some questions we won’t have answers to forever,” Dixon said. 

In the wake of the conference, University of North Texas president Neal Smatresk sent out a campus wide email Wednesday afternoon expressing condolences.

“It is difficult to adequately express the sense of loss that I, and others at UNT, feel regarding the death of a young child,” Smatresk said in the email. 

 “I want to thank the countless volunteers who joined the Denton Police Department to conduct the search near campus last night, and I appreciate UNT Police Chief Ed Reynolds and his officers for providing assistance. The community truly came together in the hope that the young boy would be found alive and safe. Our university family is pulling together to support the family during this trying time.”

Featured image: A Denton Police Department officer raises crime scene tape early Wednesday morning at the 2400 block of W. Prairie St. to let another officer through where a missing 2-year-old was found dead inside a vehicle. The investigation is ongoing. (NT Daily Photo by Jelani Gibson)